


Birthdays in Vegas

by jqueen17



Category: Phan
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Dan's Birthday, Fluff, M/M, Slight swearing, Vegas, Vegas 2.0, Vegas birthday, happy birthday dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 13:27:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7173716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jqueen17/pseuds/jqueen17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Description: In honor of my squishy son’s birthday, I have written a Vegas fic! It’s complete, undiluted fluff, featuring a few other YouTubers and the best realism I could come up with:)</p>
<p>Warnings: Some language, drinking and gambling.</p>
<p>Length: 4597</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthdays in Vegas

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you guys like this one! Since I couldn’t draw any birthday phanart for our meme lord, I wrote a fic to celebrate his birth-enjoy!:)

Dan  
“Do you have still have jet lag?”

Phil’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, which centered around the show last night. I always thought over how I could have made our previous shows better, but last night’s in Austin was nearly perfect.

“Nah, do you?”

Phil shook his head, and we fell back into a comfortable silence, messing around on our phones. It was nearly three in the morning, and we’d just unloaded our stuff into a hotel room for the next few days. Phil had wanted to sing me happy birthday at midnight, but I told him to wait until the morning, because I had a headache. The truth was, I kind of wanted to see how he would surprise me this year, by making my birthday a continuous day of fun like he had for the last seven years.

We eventually climbed into bed, Phil on the left side and me on the right. We knew the phandom exploded every time we filmed with only one bed in the room, but we really didn’t do anything on them. It was just cheaper and more convenient to get a room with one bed. Also, warmer. As I drifted into unconsciousness, a part of my mind wondered what turning twenty-five would bring. I could only guess.

 

I only woke up because Phil jostled the bed, having to wiggle out from underneath my arm, which had been wrapped around his chest quite firmly. Out of the two of us, I was the snuggler, and I had no control over it whatsoever. Also, Phil was literally the most comfortable person alive, so who could blame me?

I pretended to still be asleep, listening to Phil try his best not to ‘wake me up’. He did a pretty decent job, the loudest things he did being flushing the toilet in the little bathroom connected to the room and pressing the start button on the coffee maker, which beeped uncomfortably loud. I lay there with my eyes closed for a few more minutes, until I felt Phil gently shake my shoulder.

“Dan, wake up. You’re sleeping your birthday away.”

I blinked my eyes open, focusing blurrily on Phil’s bedhead and sleepy eyes. He held two mugs of coffee in his hand, grinning down at my probably-worse hair.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!” he suddenly yelled, making me jump and nearly knock the mugs out of his hand. I couldn’t help but laugh, however, considering the pleased expression on his face and the silly tongue-poking smile he always did when he was genuinely happy.

“I actually scared you!”

I rolled my eyes, pushing myself up and taking the mug he handed me. “Yes, you did. Are you pleased with yourself?”

He nodded excitedly, and I shook my head, smiling as I sipped my coffee. Phil drank his a lot faster than I drank mine, and I wondered how that didn’t burn his tongue. After just a few minutes he started tapping his foot impatiently, and I looked up from scrolling through my notifications on Tumblr.

“Something bothering you?”

He glared at me half-heartedly, explaining himself even though I knew exactly what was making him impatient. “Yes, your slowness! We have things to do, and unless you want all of our friends to see your hobbit hair, you need to go get ready!”

I chuckled at his exasperation, taking a few more agonizingly slow sips of my coffee before setting my mug on the nightstand, walking as slow as I could towards the bathroom before Phil kicked my butt as his way of telling me to get a move on.

I took a quick shower, balancing the time it took normal people to get ready in the morning by cursing at my shit straightener for nearly twenty minutes, and threw my grey and black leaf sweater on before Phil could tell me I was slower than Christmas. When I walked back into the main room, Phil’s face scrunched up, and I raised an eyebrow in question.

“You’re going to have to change later.”

I sat down, tugging my shoes on. “Why?”

I glanced up to see the mischievous expression the crossed his face, and knew he wouldn’t tell me. “You’ll just have to wait and seeeee,” he sang. I rolled my eyes again, hoping he couldn’t see how excited I was already.

 

“So, the first thing on the list of Things To Do For Dan’s Birthday was go to a bloody thrift store?”

Phil tried to hide his laugh, but one look at my face pushed him over the edge. Our cab driver gave us a worried look in the rearview mirror, but I flashed him a grin before trying to kill Phil with my eyes.

“I swear it’ll be more fun than you think.”

I sighed, trusting him and wherever he got this information from. I was strongly leaning towards Tyler Oakley, who was meeting us later on tonight for dinner. Leave it to Tyler to suggest Phil make me do the randomest thing anyone could do in Vegas.

The thrift store wasn’t actually that bad. We went to one called Deseret Industries, which was huge and surprisingly clean, for a Vegas thrift store, and Phil kept making me laugh by trying on the most ridiculous things. For example, a pair of green skinny jeans.

“Does this make my ass look too huge, or…?”

I burst out laughing at his serious expression, and saw the corner of his mouth twitch as if he wanted to smile. “Well, considering you have Shakira hips, they don’t really make much of a difference in that field. But I’d like to intervene with my opinion of the fact that they’re fucking green. You can’t but green pants!”

Phil burst out laughing, shimmying before going back into the dressing room. I caught a woman eyeing us amusingly, as if she thought we were a couple and we were being adorably domestic. So, basically how everyone looked at us. I smiled at her before looking down at my phone, only to have to look up again as Phil came out in a pair of baby blue skinny jeans this time.

“Phil, for the love of christ, don’t buy pastel pants.”

He pouted, switching into a pair of yellow ones. I appraised him slightly more seriously this time, because the jeans actually did make his ass look great and matched his personality perfectly.

“Dan? Do you like them?”

I stopped staring, smirking and hoping he hadn’t seen. “Sure, as much as someone could like yellow pants.”

He was grinning, so I knew he was going to buy them no matter what I said, but I didn’t allow myself to smile until he was out of sight. I heard the woman chuckle, and felt my cheeks heat up in response to someone catching me in the act of crushing on Phil. But bless her soul, she didn’t say anything, and Phil and I continued messing around with random crap in the store.

After a while, when we hadn’t found anything worth a second look for a few aisles, Phil started laughing behind me. 

“Hey, Dan, I found something you’re gonna love.”

I knew, based on that tone, that whatever it was was something I most certainly would not love. I turned around, and Phil had his hands behind his back, grinning and trying to look evil.

“Let me see.”

I mimed projectile vomiting onto my shoes when I saw the object he was holding in his hands. 

“What the hell is that?”

What it was, mind you, was the ugliest goddamn hat I had ever seen in my entire life. It appeared to be a child’s hat, way to small to fit on either of our heads, and was a faded wash of red, white, and blue on a very scratchy-looking weaved fabric.

“It matches your aesthetic!” Phil laughed, trying to hand me the “hat”. I backed up, making him laugh harder.

“My aesthetic isn’t ugly trash, Phil. Just trash. Also, it’s colored, and really badly at that.”

Phil could not stop laughing, and sobered up only enough to manage to choke out, “Birthday tweet.” I couldn’t help but laugh as well, thanks to his contagious happiness that filled every room he walked into, and took the hideous abomination from his hands.

“You want me, in this, to be the picture people remember from my twenty-fifth birthday?!”

He nodded, eyes glistening from laughter. I threw my hands up in defeat, leaning down and letting him crown me with the hat. I made a face as he took the picture, and immediately frisbee-d the thing across six aisles.

“Dan! You can’t throw things in stores!”

I looked as my phone as his tweet notified me, smirking as I looked back up. “That deserved to be thrown. It deserved to be burned, but I don’t have any fire on me.”

Phil snickered. “I guess that matches your screen name then, huh?”

I winced, touching my head a if I had a headache from the awfulness of that joke. “Ugh, Phil. That was awful.”

He grinned, absolutely proud of himself. And when he wasn’t looking, I grinned just as broadly.

 

When we returned to the hotel room, Phil nearly shoved me into the bathroom. “Go. Get dressed. We have places to be.”

I held my hands up in surrender, letting him slam the door behind me and get ready himself. I had no idea what to wear, staring at my suitcase blankly for a few moments before giving up trying to guess.

“PHIL! What’s the fanciness level I need to reach for this mysterious adventure we’re going on?”

“On a scale of one to ten, eight or nine!”

Holy crap, I thought. Maybe this would be more than dinner? I shrugged to myself, pulling out shirt after shirt and finding nothing fancy enough to be considered a nine. Until I got to the very bottom of my suitcase, where a shirt I had never seen before was folded up among the rest of them. I pulled it out, and gasped at how much I actually liked it. It was black, of course, but it shimmered with little bits of gold, and was so soft I had a hard time believing it was new, which it obviously was.

“Phil?”

When I didn’t get an answer, I called again, louder this time. “Phil?”

Nothing. I stood up, looking everywhere for a price tag of this shirt. I had to see how much he spent. “PHIL!” 

He clearly wasn’t going to answer, so I put the shirt on, loving how it matched me perfectly. I looked pretty great, surprisingly, and combed through my hair quickly before going to find Phil. He was, of course, sitting on the bed, playing what looked like Crossy Road. I waited until he looked up, my hands on my hips and my eyebrows raised expectantly. 

“Nice shirt. Definitely a nine.”

I laughed in exasperation, sitting beside him on the bed. “Where did you buy this? When did you buy this?”

 

Phil clicked his phone off, turning to look at me with smiling eyes that gave him away. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. But it really is a great shirt, matches your eyes and your hair awesomely.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, but couldn’t keep it up for long before grinning back at him. “Thank you.”

He smiled as he stood up, giving nothing away besides the fact that he was a liar. We made our way downstairs, where a fucking limo was parked outside the hotel.

“That is not ours,” I said, just as Tyler’s head poked out of the sunroof.

“Get in, bitches. We’re going to dinner.”

I grabbed Phil’s arm before he could move, looking at him like he was crazy, which he was. “You’re the best, you know that?”

He grinned, poking his tongue out and gesturing for me to climb in first, like a gentleman. I did, sitting in the middle seat, Tyler in the one parallel to it.

“Happy Birthday, Dad.”

I burst out laughing, Phil sliding the door shut behind us. Tyler tapped on the glass separating us from the driver, and we began moving.

“Y’all are looking fab, great shirt there Dan.”

I shot a look at Phil, who wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Thank you, Tyler. I have no idea where it came from.”

Tyler smirked, and I knew he was in on Phil’s surprise plans. I rolled my eyes at the both of them, getting my phone out and continuing my scrolling through the birthday phanart Tumblr was blessing me with. I hadn't realized we’d stopped until Phil nudged me, taking my arm and helping me out of the limo. I was deeply impressed that Tyler didn’t say anything, because he had to physically bite his lip to keep in his inner phangirl.

“So, who’s meeting us here?” I asked as we made our way to the elevator of the fancy casino, after getting scanned my guards that had biceps as big as my head. Phil and Tyler shot each other a look, smiling as they answered simultaneously, “It’s a surprise!” I rolled my eyes, watching Phil hit the twelfth floor button on the elevator.

“Are we eating on the roof or something?”

Another exchanged look between the two of them, and I nearly squealed from excitement, as manly as that sounds. As the elevator dinged, I wondered who would be here. I couldn’t think of any other YouTubers who would show up for my birthday, at least from America. As my eyes landed on what had to be our table, I was so surprised I couldn’t speak, let alone move. 

The first person I saw was Felix, and next to him, Marzia. Who both lived in England. Next I saw Louise, who most definitely lived in England, and Connor Franta, who at least lived in America. I was so shocked that Phil had to give me a gentle push in their direction, and I realized my mouth was slightly open. I was that surprised.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAN!”

I laughed, sitting down next to Louise, who turned and hugged me fiercely like she always did. Phil sat next to me, his grin so wide that I was surprised it didn’t hurt his face.

“Thanks, you guys. But seriously, what the hell are half of you doing in America??”

They all laughed, Felix answering me first. “Well, we all know how important time is to you, so we thought that a quarter of a century was a more important birthday than, say, thirty.”

I couldn’t believe they had done this, and watched as all my friends laughed and talked together for the first time and who knows how long, all because it was my twenty-fifth birthday. I leaned over to Phil, discreetly whispering in his ear, “Thank you. For all of this.”

Phil smiled, not looking at me as he whispered back, “I need to talk to you later, okay?”

I made a sound of agreement, and we all ordered, half of us getting alcohol and the other half politely refraining from doing so. Which was good, considering we all needed at least one sober friend to walk around a casino with. Louise and Connor didn’t order any sort of alcohol at all, and Marzia only ordering a small glass of champagne. Felix and Tyler, however, ordered alcohol throughout the meal, as did I, choosing to order a Venetian Spritz Cocktail, the fanciest thing on the menu. It was pink, which Phil thought was funny, but it tasted bitter instead of sweet. I quite liked it, possibly too much, as I lost count of how many I had drank before Phil intervened as my next one was brought to me.

“Um, Dan, how many of those have you had?”

I shrugged, about to throw it back when Louise interrupted. “I’d like to make a toast to the star of this meal,” she paused, smiling fondly at me. “Dan Howell, you keep getting more hilarious as the years go by. Aging has done you good so far, so here’s to it continuing making you a better person.” Everyone raised their drinks, clinking their glasses together and agreeing with varying sounds of general approval. I hoped Louise hadn’t noticed how much alcohol I was consuming, considering she said I was a ‘good person’, and chose to sip my cocktail instead of inhaling it like I had the others. The many, many others.

After dinner, considering we were in a casino, we decided to gamble. Louise, Marzia, and Felix headed straight for the slot machines, while Connor and Tyler went to the blackjack tables. I fancied the roulette section of the casino.

“Dan, last time you played this you got addicted…”

I grinned at Phil, my mind foggy and unable to remember the last time I played roulette anywhere. “Well, come with me then, silly. You can keep me reasonable.”

Phil chuckled, allowing me to pull him to the roulette tables with the wheels spinning away. They were colorful and mesmerizing, dizzying me and making me stumble slightly against Phil, who had a firm hold on my arm. I immediately put $25 on number three, my favorite number, and Phil sighed loudly.

“I’ll give you three rounds. If you don’t win we’re going to the slot machines.”

I waved him off, watching the wheel blur and the the ball jump around crazily, landing on… number three.

“SEE? It’s birthday luck!”

Phil laughed, watching me bet increasingly more money as I kept winning more and more. Eventually he touched my arm, gently warning me that everything that goes up must come down. 

“One more, please??” I begged, knowing he would say no. 

“Dan, I need to talk to you, remember?”

I nodded, gathering my giant pile of chips and following Phil to the counter. The total I had accumulated was something near $4,000. Which wasn’t too shabby, if I did say so myself.

Phil lead the way up to our new room at the Venetian, letting us in and closing the door behind us. I flopped down on the bed, exhausted now that I thought about it. Alcohol and food and gambling made a person just want to crash. 

“Did you have fun today?”

I looked up at Phil, who was sat on the edge of the bed next to me. I grinned, knowing my smile looked goofy and not caring at all.

“Yeah, thanks to you. You’re crazy for doing all of this for me.”

He shook his head, beginning to wave me off again when I grabbed his hand in midair. His eyes clicked to mine, and I held his gaze as steadily as I held his hand.

“Phil, seriously. You shouldn’t have. That must have cost a fortune.”

Smiling, he rubbed a thumb over my knuckles thoughtfully. “Not as much as you just won, if it makes you feel better. But the shirt was the part I hoped you liked the most.”

I nodded, playing with his fingers as well. “I did. It’s beautiful, and I look fabulous as fuck in it.”

I knew Phil would laugh, but him sticking his tongue through his teeth made me remember just how adorable my best friend really was. I used my other hand to reach up and adjust his fringe, making him freeze.

“You, however, look great all the time.”

Phil’s face grew hot under my touch, and I trailed a hand over his cheekbones and jawbone, awed at how beautiful he was and pissed at myself for not appreciating him more, not looking at him more. I stared now, though, long and hard and unashamedly, considering the fact that I was drunk and wasn’t thinking as much as I should have been. But I was thinking enough. I knew what I was doing.

“Dan? Are you alright?”

I ran my fingers over his lips as he spoke, still mesmerized by the colors of his face and the flawlessness of him as a person. He let me, watching my face as I watched his. 

“Dan…”

I moved my hand to the back of his neck, pulling him down on top of me and pressing my lips tentatively against his. Phil and I hadn’t kissed for a long few years, and I missed the feeling of his cool lips on mine, his hands running themselves through my hair and soothing my nerves about kissing my best friend. But he paused before doing that this time, propping himself up and looking down at me cautiously.

“Are you sure? Are you completely okay with this? Don’t do something you don’t want to do just because you’re wasted.”

I stared back up at him, thinking as clearly as I ever had before. “I’m sure.”

“Good,” Phil said, and he initiated the kiss this time. I simultaneously couldn’t breathe and was panting from breathing too much, and when Phil moved his lips down to my neck, I sucked a breath in so loud that he jumped back in worry.

“Are you okay? I won’t do that if you don’t-”

I shook my head, tilting my chin up a little. “No, no, you’re fine,” I gasped. “It just felt really good. I didn’t think it would.”

Phil chuckled, kissing my lips again briefly before returning to my neck. We stayed like that for a while, his lips on my neck and his hands in my hair, my hands in his as I pulled him closer to me. We eventually broke apart, Phil collapsing beside me and both of us trying to catch our breath.

“You need to get some sleep,” Phil sighed, rolling over and pushing my messed up fringe out of my face. “I still need to talk to you, and you have to be sober when I do.”

I pouted, making Phil laugh exasperatedly. “You’re not tired?”

“I am,” I said slowly, a devious grin crossing my face. “But not enough to not want to do other… more productive… things.”

Phil cracked up, reaching over me to click the lamp off. I turned, burying my face in his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me, enveloping me in warmth and comfort.

“I’m gonna have a bitch of a hangover tomorrow,” I mumbled, making Phil laugh at my upset tone.

“Maybe you should have thought about drinking so many cocktails.”

I shrugged halfheartedly, snuggling closer to him and murmuring, “Love you,” as I drifted into sleep.

“I love you too, Dan.”

 

I had been right, my hangover was an absolute bitch. A wonderful, brain-splitting bitch that had me bent over the toilet at seven in the morning, with Phil rubbing my back and handing me a towel.

“Shower, I’ll make us some coffee. Okay?”

I nodded, flushing the toilet and taking a quick shower to wash off the overall grossness I felt at drinking so much and throwing up at an alarming velocity. I threw on one of Phil’s t shirts, some sweats, and didn’t dare bother with my straightener as I needed the opposite of heat applied to my pounding head. Phil had made coffee, as well as ordered breakfast, by the time I flopped face-first on the bed. I felt him sit next to me, setting what he had been holding on the nightstand and rubbing gentle circles on my back, trying to soothe me. He did make the tenseness in my spine go away, though.

“Bear, eat something, okay? I’ve got aspirin from Felix, as well. Please?”

I groaned, sitting up as much as I could and knocking back the aspirin faster than I had the alcohol I mistakenly drank so much of last night. I nibbled at some toast and bacon, not really eating much of anything because my stomach kept cramping every time a taste registered in my mouth. Phil ate as well, a lot faster considering he had one bloody glass of wine last night.

“What did you need to talk to me about?” I asked eventually, giving up on the food and looking at Phil expectantly. He smiled almost undetectably, getting up and grabbing his bag from the other side of the room. He sat back down, looking at me and taking a deep breath.

“You said you loved me last night.”

I nodded, wondering why he was bringing it up. “I don’t regret it, and I meant it” I said, making him nod in relief.

“Okay. Then saying this will be easier.”

I waited for him to continue as he grabbed my hand, looking at it instead of at my face.

“I’ve loved you since I met you, Dan Howell. You’ve been my best friend for longer than most people have ever had regular friends, and I don’t think anything could tear us apart. But I’ve been wondering for a while now, what would it be like to take our relationship to the next level? I know that sounds stupid, since we tried that before, but we’re not kids anymore and after last night, I know this is a good idea.”

Phil let go of my hand to reach into his bag, pulling out a tiny box that made me look at him with a mixture of fear and shock. He saw my face, chuckling a little as he continued.

“No, I’m not proposing to you. You can breathe.”

I laughed, mostly in relief but also in wonder at where he was going with this.

“I bought this the day we flew to America, planning on giving this to you on your birthday no matter what happened. I’m still counting this as your birthday, because yesterday was crazy and you’re sober now.”

He handed me the box, and I opened it, stunned at what I saw. I knew it would be a ring, but I hadn’t known it would be the most perfect ring short of an engagement ring I had ever seen. It was a dark silver, shimmery instead of shiny, and had lines of onyx swirling around the outside of the band. In between the spirals, words were engraved in looping font, and I spun it around, reading the words. 

You’re my forever.

On the inside of the band, a date was engraved, and I looked at it for a long moment, blinking tears out of my eyes as I looked back up at Phil. 

10/19/09

“Phil,” I choked out, holding the ring between my fingers and not believing I had a best friend this amazing in my life.

“Do you like it?” he asked, sounding worried, of all things. I turned and wrapped my arms around him as a response, slipping the ring on my finger and staring at it in amazement.

“I seriously love you, you know that?”

Phil laughed, hugging me back and staring at the ring as well.

“I love you too, Dan. I’m really glad you were born.”

I laughed, thinking what an odd thing that was to say, but agreeing nonetheless. Because If I hadn't been born, I wouldn’t have known Phil. And if I hadn’t known Phil, what was life worth anyway? I might question the reason for my existence, but I knew Phil’s purpose had to be to make people happy, to be the sunshine to people’s lives.

He sure brought sunshine to mine.

“Is this how all birthdays in Vegas go?” I asked, making Phil giggle.

“Well,” he said, looking at me in amusement. “Not always. You remember what happened last time.”

I grinned. “Good point.”


End file.
